In order to improve the profitability of an entity, such as a business, managers of the entity may use forecasts that attempt to predict the results of the entity's operations in future periods. These forecasts may focus on various aspects of the entity's operations, such as inventory management or predicted future input costs. The aspects of the entity's operations chosen for forecasting may be aspects that affect the overall profitability of the entity's operations, but they may not present a coherent overall picture of the future profitability of the entity's operations. For example, rigorous inventory management based upon forecasts of anticipated supply and demand could provide an entity the opportunity to reduce costs of storing and shipping inputs and finished inventory, which could lead to increased profitability. Forecasts that focus primarily on inventory management, though, do not incorporate other aspects of the entity's operations that could be negatively affected if, for example, rigorous inventory control occasionally were to result in shortages of supply to the entity's customers. Such shortages potentially could reduce or eliminate the additional profit that might be derived from the rigorous inventory control.